The use of prompts with respect to word processing equipment and data entry terminals is well known and has been used for a considerable length of time. Most prompts with respect to word processing equipment utilizing a display or a video display tube to display the information, take the form of menus from which the operator may choose or printed prompts on the display. Such menu prompts in individual or menu form are predominantly found on terminals and computer displays.
Voice response or questioning or prompting has been used on educational machines such as machines which make statements or which ask questions illiciting a response from a student.
More recently, voice prompting has found its way into automobiles in the form of a vocalized or verbalized command such as "fasten seat belts" when a certain sequence of events occurs. The sequence of events would typically be when the ignition key is inserted into the ignition switch of the automobile and turned to an on position.
Some voice prompting has been utilized in airplanes where certain flight conditions which are considered to be unsafe will trigger the voice synthesizer to command the aircraft pilot to execute a particular maneuver such as the command "pull up" if the aircraft is below a predesignated flight path altitude. In all instances, the prompts are triggered by an operation or by the existence of predetermined conditions. The prompts are preloaded and are selected by the apparatus to respond to a particular condition. The prompts are not programmable by the operator nor are they selectable by the operator such that the operator gets a desired prompt at a particular point in a sequence of events.
Prior art typewriters without an auxiliary display do not have the capability of prompting as an aid to the operator. The operator of the typewriter must observe where the print point of the typewriter is located and then make the appropriate entry based upon the recognition of what type of material is relevant at that point. For example, when filling out a form, the print point will be positioned over a field on the form which would contain the date of the document. The operator must observe that the print point is in that position and then type the date based upon the recognition of the position of the print point relative to the form.
The typing of forms, with many different positions that must be accessed during the typing, is a particularly slow job due to the need to keep referring to the location of the print point visually. This interrupts the normal keying of an operator who can otherwise merely watch the page of the material to be typed.
Electronic typewriters are presently available on the market, and have been for some time, which have the capability of storing of texts of varying lengths electronically and the stored texts may be recalled at a later time for playout. Movement commands such as carrier return, index, tabulation and spacing may be stored, as well as characters for textual purposes.